The second chapter opens with an announcement from Sanjaya which, with a few rightly chosen words, gives a complete picture of Arjuna’s sad mental state of desperation. His mind had become overwhelmed with pity and sorrow. The very expression clearly indicates that Arjuna was not the master of the situation at that time, but on the contrary, the situation had Arjuna as its victim! To get ourselves over-ridden by life’s circumstances is to ensure disastrous failures on all occasions. Only a weakling, who allows himself to be overpowered by circumstances, can be victimised by the outer happenings. Arjuna, in his present neurotic condition, has become a slave to the outer challenges. The estimate of Sanjaya not only describes to us the mental condition of Arjuna but also pointedly gives us a hint that the cracking of the inner personality of Arjuna has made deep fissures into the character of the great hero. The greatest archer of his time, Arjuna, has been so totally impoverished within that he has come to weep like a simple maiden!
To Arjuna, thus overwhelmed by an emotion of misplaced pity and tearless weeping, Madhusudana (slayer of the demon, Madhu), Lord Krishna, spoke the following words. Here, it is to be noted that modern psychology has also observed and recorded that a tearless weeping is the climax in the attack of hysteria.
